Uh oh... ATI does triple head

[Whirl-Secret]

The driver release notes indicate that ATI's three-screen SURROUNDVIEW multimonitor functionality is now available for Radeon 9800, 9600, 9500, 9200, and 9000 series graphics cards when used with motherboards based on ATI's Radeon 9100 IGP chipset.

Tech Report News article

Lucky I like Matrox for other reasons too, but the reaons for someone buying one for the first time (ie switching from ATI / NVidia) are getting less and less imho.

[borat]

So the 3rd head will output through the ramdac on the 9100IGP, does this mean that its just giving support for 3 screens in windows 2d?or are we talking full blown ATi surround gaming here?If its surround gaming then they would somehow have to transfer across the AGP bus all of the data needed to go to the IGP ramdac.
ill email ATi right away.

[piaxVirus]

I think that is limited to independent TH desktop and would not allow you to game in SG. So this is good for desktop use.

I hope the latest drivers will fix the problem I have been having at work of my ATI 9200SE drivers crashing when I add a matrox mil1 into the machine. My present workaround is to use regedit to change my AA and AF settings.

[borat]

what a waste uf time then, this should already be available in windows!!

[XHotKolaX]

I thought this was always possible with and number of videocards. What's so special about it?

[cjolley]

I asked that question here: http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47197

I use three monitors at work.
They run off of my MB intel controler and a PCI G450DH.

As far as I can tell, you could have an independent screen for as many vid contrloers as you could fit in your computer running XP.
So I have no idea what is special about this except as advertising copy.
chuck

[chhfchhf]

XGI and Intel also have Tri-Head plan

[borat]

well ATI dont even seem to know, i said what are the exact unique features of SURROUNDVEIW, and they sent me an email back saying check out the features page of our cards. Seems it offers nothing barring a more centralised control method for the screens. Good to see them pushing in the right direction though!

[ThunderFoot]

Most motherboards with integrated video won't let you run the AGP slot and the integrated video at the same time as far as I'm aware. So you've always been able to put in as many PCI cards as you liked and get it working that way, but until now you haven't been able to use the integrated video for anything if you actually used the AGP port...


ThunderFoot.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

ya, thunderfoot is right. i was about to say that.

ATI/Intel Extreme Graphics/NForce/SiS IGPs are all based on the AGP interface. That means you normally cannot use an AGP card with the integrated mobo graphics processor, because AGP requires memory allowcation from the mobo BIOS (thus the AGP aperture size thing). So right now ATI got it working, and I don't know how they did it, because I'd think the AGP slot and the ATI IGP shares the same AGP bus (so you either use the AGP slot or the integrated graphics), but apparently it seems like ATI designed the IGP such that it uses some sort of alternative AGP bus or something. I don't work for ATI so I don't know, but I believe there should be some design difference from other IGP makers...

I think this is a smart move by ATI, because by doing so, they can gain "most" of the functionality of Parhelia's 3-head display, while there is no additional cost added to the graphics card itself... esp for those who don't need 3-head (majority) i.e. no need to setup another assembly line for 3-head enabled graphics card... and people may choose to buy ATI based motherboard solutions....

@cjolley: reason why you are allowed to do that is because the G450 is PCI, which runs through the southbridge (super slow!) while the Intel graphics is AGP.

using AGP interface like that = no bottleneck... and if they can get 3d working on all screens (which is possible), then even better (or worse for Matrox)

[Che Guevara]

About surround-GAMING:

Even if it would be possible to play on 3 screens with Atis solution, you have the performance and, more important, the DX-features of the integrated chip on one screen. Does it make sense to combine a slow Dx8.1 chip with a R 9800 with two outputs for gaming today, while DX9 games are coming ?

[UtwigMU]

IMO it won't work in games as they have to see it as one seamless screen on one card.

WRT to ATI solution:
AGP 3.0 allows for more than one AGP bus to exist on motherboards and they are proabably first to utilize this.

It just allows to use onboard istead of cheapo PCI card for 3d monitor, which you would otherwise use.



EDIT:
Ati does triplehead.

Sounds like VIA does SMP.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

@Che Guevara: then does it make sense to get Parhelia for gaming? after all its a dx8.1 card practically.

edit: consider this: a radeon 9600 pro + IGP. You can get the whole motherboard for like the same price, plus 200 dollar CDN for the R9600P. Meanwhile I am paying 500+ for a Parhelia just for gaming, which does not have good 3d performance and no DX9 (using the same idea of yours), while surroundgaming support is practiacally dead.

[DGhost]

not to mention the driver issues, lack of decent support for games, etc etc...

[Ribbit]

Originally posted by UtwigMU

Ati does triplehead.

Sounds like VIA does SMP.

Actually, VIA were planning an SMP version of the KT266 at one point. Scary....